A literature review on lactopontin and its roles in early life

Abstract

Objective: Our study aims to review the functions and possible mechanisms of lactopontin (LPN) in early life.Background: Human milk proteins provide a variety of protection and health benefits in early life. One of these multifunctional proteins is LPN, which is osteopontin (OPN) derived from milk.Methods: Information used to write this paper was collected from Uniprot, PubMed, and Google Scholar, including in vitro, in vivo, and clinical studies.Conclusions: LPN is a highly phosphorylated, O-glycosylated acidic protein and a unique type of OPN, as it presents at the highest concentration and a higher degree of posttranslational modifications (PTMs) in human milk than other tissues and excretions. LPN is present in milk and the intestinal tracts of infants after consumption as a mixture of intact protein and peptides, which can bind diverse integrin and receptors in the target cell and drive downstream signaling pathways. LPN is found to play important roles in developing the immune, intestinal and nervous systems in early life. Moreover, LPN has also shown to support preterm infants' health when they are especially vulnerable after delivery via animal studies. Additionally, LPN can form protein complex with another milk bioactive protein, lactoferrin (LF), to withstand proteolysis and perform more efficient biological activity. Therefore, LPN showed great potential for early life while more clinical trials and evidence are still emergying.

An expert panel on the adequacy of safety data and physiological roles of dietary bovine osteopontin in infancy

“…Assessing the distribution of dietary bmOPN is complicated by its ubiquitous endogenous presence in numerous tissues and fluids ( 21 , 22 , 31 , 33 , 44 , 50 , 61 , 62 ). While human milk is particularly rich in OPN, plasma is not.…”

“…Osteopontin (OPN) is one such protein that could be added to infant formulas to mimic the composition and functionality of human milk. OPN is particularly high in concentration in human milk compared to bovine milk (19), with growing evidence that its intake in early life supports immune, intestinal, and neural development (20)(21)(22)(23). In 2022, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) published their scientific opinion that bovine milk osteopontin (bmOPN) is safe when added at a maximum concentration of 151 mg/L in infant formula (up to 6 months of age), follow-on formula (ages 6-12 months), and formula for young children (ages 1-3 years) (24).…”

Gastro‐Intestinal Digested Bovine Milk Osteopontin Modulates Gut Barrier Biomarkers In Vitro

“…[ 2 ] Osteopontin (OPN) in milk, also known as lactopotin (LPN), is a highly phosphorylated glycoprotein, which involved in diverse physiological functions during early life, including immune homeostasis, neurodevelopment, and cognition improvement. [ 3–5 ] The OPN concentration varied across sites, from 99.7 mg L −1 in Danish, 185.0 mg L −1 in Japanese, 216.2 mg L −1 in Korean to 266.2 mg L −1 in Chinese mothers, much higher than the average levels in bovine milk (≈18 mg L −1 ), and therefore at lower concentrations in infant formula. [ 6 ] According to previous research, OPN deficiency might partly explain the immune differences between breast‐ and formula‐fed infants.…”

Milk Osteopontin and Human Health

“…Recently, the bovine milk protein ingredient Lacprodan OPN-10© (Arla Foods Ingredients), consisting of +95% bovine OPN, has been recommended for use as Novel Food in infant formula by The European Food Safety Authorities (EFSA) [12]. Milk OPN has previously been reviewed by several groups [13][14][15][16][17][18]. In the present review, we summarize existing knowledge about human and bovine milk OPN, with emphasis on the cellular and physiological effects of milk OPN as a dietary ingredient.…”